Microsoft's Japanese workers have become more productive by working less

Reducing the work week to four days, Microsoft has achieved a significant increase in productivity at its offices in Japan, one of the countries where more overtime hours are made. The reduction in working hours was part of an experiment conducted last August and which the company now says it wants to repeat in order to better understand its effects. The issue of reducing working hours has been discussed for some time and is linked to the idea that while working methods and jobs have changed significantly in recent years, the hours to be worked have remained almost identical.

The Japanese division of Microsoft summarized the results of its experiment with a statement, in which it explains that it gave its employees free five fridays last summer. The results: sales per employee increased by 40 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, when employees had worked with the classic five-day weekly schedule. The company also noted an improvement in its consumption, with a 59 percent drop in printed pages and a reduction in electricity consumption of 23 percent. 94 percent of employees said they were satisfied with the test, which allowed them to have more free hours during the week.

The experiment was part of the "Work Life Choice Challenge 2019 Summer" project, conducted by Microsoft to try various types of solutions to improve the work experience of its employees, at a time of the year like the summer that offers some extra margin to change things without particular consequences for workloads. Each Microsoft participant has guaranteed a paid day off, with the aim of encouraging employees to "work shorter time periods, rest and learn better" techniques to increase their productivity and creativity.

In addition to the four-day work week, the experiment included the application of several other rules to optimize times, such as a 30-minute limit for meeting duration. Employees were also encouraged to use tools such as Microsoft Teams to chat with each other and organize online meetings, reducing the downtime of traditional meetings.

Microsoft Japan has announced that it wants to repeat the experiment in the winter months, participating in the debate around working hours that is affecting Japan and that the government itself is engaged. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has recently introduced new rules to reduce overtime, incentivize part-time jobs with higher salaries and the possibility of occasional jobs.

In the rankings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Japan is not among the top countries for hours worked per year, but correctly assessing the time spent working by the Japanese is rather complicated and according to analysts the estimates they are largely at fault. Many employees spend more hours at work than those declared and often do not mark overtime, partly because formally the most recent laws have introduced lower thresholds to try to reduce them.

The reduction in working hours is increasingly debated and has among its supporters those who believe that advances in technology have changed the way people work, offering new opportunities to be more productive in less time than in the past. The proposals usually focus on reducing daily hours or shorter work weeks, as experienced by Microsoft in Japan.

In many countries there has been discussion for some time on whether to review working hours, but political and trade union confrontation has not led to significant changes for now. While waiting for clearer indications or laws that change the organization of work, some companies like Microsoft have experimented with alternative solutions.

The Washington Post reports the case of Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand investment fund, which for a couple of months has experienced 30 hours of work a week, leaving the 37-hour employee payment unchanged. The results included lower levels of stress among employees and maintenance of productivity levels, with greater involvement by employees. Given the promising results, the fund has made the change permanent, to which each employee can voluntarily adhere.

In the United Kingdom there has been talk for some time of the possibility of reducing the work week to four days, a proposal that finds the main trade unions and part of the Labor Party favorable, which has also commissioned a study on this possibility. However, several economists are not convinced that the ideal solution is to limit the number of working hours by law, considering that individual companies should apply solutions according to their needs and those indicated by their employees.

Companies of various sizes have conducted similar experiments also in Italy, although with the aim of making work more practical for employees, rather than reducing their working hours. Among the most explored solutions are those on the so-called "smart working", with the possibility of working at least one day from home by connecting remotely with your computer, without the need to go to the office.

The reduction in working hours brings with it however some concerns, for example on the risk that working days become much more intense and stressful to complete a substantial amount of work in a shorter time. There could also be risks for employees, with companies that could use the excuse of shorter hours worked to significantly reduce salaries.